Tonight marked the fifth and final day of my tournament diary newsletters. I followed the course of a week playing tournaments in Las Vegas. If you didn't subscribe to the newsletter at BlackjackInfo.com, you can read the series here: http://www.blackjackinfo.com/news/ It was a fun week, but I'll be glad to get back home, -Ken-
Ken Thanks for the great story about your recent adventure. It was an eye opener for me on how to organize an road trip. In May I will be in Vegas for the million II tourney and would like to add some touraments to my visit. Any suggestions you could make regarding gaming activities and deals would also be very helpful. Thanks again.
Ken, Thanks for taking the time for the diary. A couple of questions- Do the Stardust and Frontier hold these tourneys on the casino floor or somewhere secluded, like a banquet room? Playing with live money- do they use different chips? Is there any chance a player could abuse this and sneek in extra bankroll? In events like this how do the dealers get tipped?
Almost all tournament events are held on the regular gaming floor. They take over a single pit of blackjack tables to host the event. If you're in the casino during these events, you're welcome to be a spectator. There are occasional exceptions. The Las Vegas Hilton finals were held in one of their convention rooms, and Atlantic City casinos sometimes have events away from the casino floor. (They have precious few events at all though.) As for the chips, they use specially designated tournament chips, even in the live money events. After you finish playing, they change your remaining bankroll into regular chips. And, as you might expect, they keep pretty close tabs on the tournament chips, so players can't sneak any off the table and return with them in a later round. One interesting note from the recent Mohegan Sun event. That event was not live money, but it was actually played with live Mohegan Sun chips. The chips were slightly different from those in use on the casino floor, as they were some sort of reserve stock. But, they were indeed negotiable. Before we played any of the rounds, the organizers were very careful to be sure we understood that the chip count would be verified before anyone was allowed to leave the table. After all, for the finals in that event, the 6 players were advanced $600,000 in real chips!
Ken, Thanks for the answers. I just checked out the Frontier's website. They have the advertisement for the February event still posted under tourneys. It looks like your perks are limited if you enter. A discounted room rate ($25) and a continental breakfast are it. How is the equity of this event, at least 100 % returned? How do you handle playing with live money? I guess it shouldn't influence your tourney decision making. It sure could get costly though when going for a longshot on the last hand.
Yes, the freebies are limited at the Frontier, though they do put out a decent spread of sandwiches and fruit for the tournament players. The rooms are worth about the $25 you spend on them. I often stay elsewhere, but I decided to stay at the Frontier this trip. It's a nice event, so it makes sense to support it in everyway possible. That also explains my venture to the craps tables at both Stardust and Frontier! I had previously thought this was a 100% equity event, but someone earlier today told me that they have previously taken a percent or two of the pot out. For the last couple of events, they have begun taking a 2% dealer tip pool out of the entries. I don't mind that, as it will likely save me a little if I make the finals anyway. I would likely tip 3% as the winner, and maybe a higher percentage for some of the lower finishes. They're quite upfront about the dealer tip pool, so that makes me suspect that the previous events were all 100% returned, despite rumors to the contrary. Can anyone provide a definitive answer for that? It's tough to figure because it is hard to tell how many full entries vs reentries ($300 vs $150) were paid in. As for playing with live money, I make a real effort to forget about the cash value of the chips. I've made several errors over the years when doubling for less because of the value of the chips. If it's a bad double, I'll try to figure out the least I can double for and still win the round. I still agree this is a good idea, but I no longer try to figure it down to the dollar. I'll throw an extra $25 chip on the top for good measure, so a tiny chip-counting error doesn't cost me the round. If I'm a huge longshot at the end, and I'll only have a tiny percentage chance of succeeding, I may skip the opportunity to double my hard 18 with $300 working at the Stardust for example. That's $600 in my pocket. Of course, if that comes up in the semifinals or finals, I'll not even hesitate to double.
